THz imaging of inexpensive glow discharge detector (GDD) pixel

Author

Kopeika, N.S. ; Abramovich, A. ; Joseph, H. ; Akram, A. ; Yadid-Pecht, O. ; Belenky, A. ; Lineykin, S.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electro-Opt. Eng., Ben Gurion Univ. of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

fYear

2009

fDate

9-11 Nov. 2009

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

A new kind of 8Ã—8 focal plane array (FPA) based on glow discharge detector (GDD) elements was constructed and tested experimentally. First THz images of this FPA are presented. The data acquisition of this system is performed with a special VLSI board designed for this system. Switching mode is necessary in order to save energy and video rate operation. Recent investigations proved that it is possible to overcome the timing limitations. GDD stabilization time of less than 1 msec was achieved. Moreover, It was shown that heterodyne detection yielded 40 times more sensitivity than the direct detection used today.

Keywords

VLSI; data acquisition; focal planes; glow discharges; heterodyne detection; terahertz wave imaging; FPA; GDD elements; GDD stabilization; THz Imaging; VLSI board; data acquisition; focal plane array; glow discharge detector; heterodyne detection; switching mode; video rate operation; Detectors; Glow discharges; Pixel; THz detector; THz imaging; focal plane array; plasma;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwaves, Communications, Antennas and Electronics Systems, 2009. COMCAS 2009. IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Tel Aviv

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-3985-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/COMCAS.2009.5386034

Filename

5386034